Model United Nations

The situation at Harvard Model United Nations in India (bestdelegate.com)

Model United Nations is an academic simulation "to proliferate the spirit of United Nations all across the globe", in the words of the MUN Community in Universitas Gadjah Mada. In these simulations, you are being tasked to act as a diplomat representing countries of your choice. My personal experience so far is being the "delegate" of Thailand, Italy and Greece. It is a formal debate - not the kind of debate conducted in Asian/Australian/British Parliamentary System, it has its own rules and procedures. What characterizes MUN the most is the fact that you are debating on behalf of your country preference, not on the behalf of your own opinion. Say, you are representing the Russian Federation, no matter how much you are a pro-democracy or pro-liberalization in real-life, you have to shed your own ideals and adopt what Russia stands for. Yes, it involves a lot of investigations (in my own terms) to the deeper, innermost background of the said country. It's complicated, tiring, yet at the same time FUN!

I will be the first one to admit that I had never heard of a MUN before the orientation period of my campus. Hence, when I experienced it for the first time, my thought was, "Have I been living inside a rock all these times?" There are so much about my own major that I haven't known yet. MUN is one of them. Now, I'm writing these to you guys so that you would not be caught off-guard just like I previously was. MUN is, after all, also applicable for high school category and university category.

One of my first MUN experiences happened just recently, at Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang (yay! home!). Feeling a bit guilty for representing UGM instead of the pride of my home city, I went on a MUN competition conducted by the local chapter of ALSA (ASEAN Law Student Association) in Undip's Faculty of Law. Sorry to go into much technical details here, guys. I gotta give credits to where it is due. I was representing Greece. Lots of fun happened in that particular conference.

First, we didn't get the study guide (a.k.a. the issue in the agenda and the country allocation) until three days before the conference began. Shame on me, I was crowded by many school works so that my time for preparation was only one night. Feeling so underhanded, I read the study guide and my country allocation. Tada! Guess what? The issue was transmigration. How in the world did I end up with that issue? A bit mind-numbing to be honest. And Greece! Well, Greece has pretty important relevancy to that issue, I stress to you. However, the study guide only mentioned China and South-east Asian countries in details. At that moment I knew I was going to have a hard time convincing other delegates of Greece's relevancy.

Second, ECOFIN (Economic and Finance) Committee, the council that I was in, ended up to be, in my biased opinion, the most tight-knitted council among others (Security Council and UNICEF). What's the proof? Well, we managed to befriend each other and not be hostile, and in the dinner night, we agreed to sit in one table. I am so glad to be in ECOFIN because some of the delegates in other committees are, well, scary...

Third, I won! Huh, what? Yep, I didn't believe it either. I was unable to attend the closing ceremony (one complain, why did they go with those pointless events? Much prefer to go straight to the winner announcement. Plus the schedule was far from punctual..), and I frankly did not have much care about who's winning 'cause I was seeking experience. I was not a bloc leader and I did not really roll up the working paper/draft-resolution making. What I did do instead was being an antagonist to the paper by invoking the "Greece has many debts! You gotta help us!" card. In my defense, everyone (like I mentioned before, we're friendly :)) was so agreeable and ready to ratify the draft as soon as possible - it was tiring. But the conference was not scheduled to end that soon. Someone has gotta be making the drama, rite? Although, winning an award caught me off-guard. (By the way, delegate of Australia, I still think you deserve more than me. ;))

Bottom line, MUN is a very new experience to me, but I have always been in love with public speaking and debating. I do encourage you to expand your boundaries and try something new! Cause you might not know what opportunity lies ahead.

P.s. I'm so excited to be one of the delegates for Harvard National Model United Nation February next year! Very unexpected! I mean, me, the newbie??? But why not? To other HNMUN 2015 delegates from Undip (yep, I met you ;)) and other Indonesian universities, and of course, beloved UGM delegations, let's rock the boat in Boston...!

P.s (#2) Yep, it's not a scholarship. Thanks for your prayers though! I do believe that it's not a coincidental mistake. It's gonna happen exactly like the "modified" version. Another time, another day. Let those who understand, understand. :D